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From: plogan@mentor.com (Patrick Logan)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Re: code blocks (Was: Re: Objective-C review)
Message-ID: <1990Jul7.003900.1102@mentor.com>
Date: 7 Jul 90 00:39:00 GMT
References: <12396@june.cs.washington.edu> <1112@carol.fwi.uva.nl> <5305@stpstn.UUCP>
Organization: engr
Lines: 16
In-reply-to: cox@stpstn.UUCP's message of 30 Jun 90 19:22:23 GMT


(Warning: My comments are based on using Smalltalk-80 and Smalltalk/V
occaissionally for a few months in 1987. I think I recall the latest
ParcPlace version has blocks that are more like "first class"
procedures.)

I find Smalltalk's blocks to be unnecessarily limited in usefulness.
Compare them to Scheme's "first class" procedures which can be passed
freely "upwards" and "downwards". It would be truly awkward, IMO, to
give C/C++ some form of Smalltalk's blocks without generalizing it to
include simple nested functions, for example.

-- 
Patrick Logan  uunet!mntgfx!plogan        |
Mentor Graphics Corp. 8500 SW Creekside P |
Beaverton, Oregon 97005-7191              |